


Purpose

by MoonGoddex



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gift Fic, Pining, Post-Canon, Redemption
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:21:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27104899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonGoddex/pseuds/MoonGoddex
Summary: Hordak finds himself helping to repair a world he had a hand in harming. He can do it, he thinks, so long as he's with Entrapta.
Relationships: Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 40
Collections: Fic In A Box





	Purpose

**Author's Note:**

  * For [roguelightning](https://archiveofourown.org/users/roguelightning/gifts).



Hordak didn't quite know exactly where he fit in this new way of the world, but he did know how to be around Entrapta. She was the embodiment of safety, comfort.

He knew how to watch her work - he had plenty of practise doing that. He knew how to ask her questions about her tech, and her new projects. He had learned how to listen as time rattled on, but he'd always known how to appreciate her. That much came naturally to him.

Her enthusiasm was infectious, even as she worked on a project he was incapable of fathoming the intricacies of, throwing out ideas and theories so fast he struggled to keep up.  
Hordak had always been an ideas person, ultimately. He knew what he wanted, and he knew what was needed to make it work. Piecing it together, though? Execution was a weak point, for him.  
Never for her.  
So sitting with her, becoming a sounding board for her ideas, watching as they developed into realization before his very eyes; he had never had much fondness for nature, but he could see the parallels, like a flower blooming into brilliance from a tiny seed. She wasn't nature's biggest fan either, but she still engendered that spark of affinity in him, made him appreciate the greenery that little more because he saw her in it.

She had been working on tech to help heal Etheria, for the most part, undoing the damage they all had wrought - she still tinkered with robots that served less philanthropic purposes in her spare time, but the other Princesses were providing her with funding, materials, and praise when she worked on helping. It served as ample motivation for her.  
They had largely... Given Hordak the side-eye as he volunteered to work with her, but between Entrapta and Adora's reassurances, had accepted his willingness to change, to make up for, well, everything.  
And there was an element of regret, a desire to atone, especially now he was free of the horror of Prime. But really, there were other things he knew he'd be better at; he could provide direction, if trusted, for example. He could provide more information as to dismantling remaining Horde outposts, long-forgotten traps and remaining troops in need of conversion, deprogramming. He could heal the scars left on Etheria alongside Adora, make her life so much easier.

He could.  
But then he wouldn't be at Entrapta's side.  
She understood, though they didn't speak about it often. She didn't care about who he was-- Or perhaps she did; but she didn't hold the fact that his involvement was what got them to the place where they needed to rebuild against him.  
The others weren't cruel to him. Logically, they seemed to understand why he'd done what he did, but it was only natural they had reservations. They were trying to forgive and forget, and really that was more than he could ask for. He'd take lingering feelings of distrust, uncertainty, in return for continued opportunity to prove he was attempting to atone.  
She was in the same boat, in some ways. They forgave her easier, but she had caused some of this. She'd forgiven, them, too, for pushing her to that point. It was a process, though, not an overnight fix.  
It meant they had a solidarity. Unspoken, but still there. They were a team; no longer outcasts, but not really in the in-group, either.

And if he spoke frankly - which he rarely did, because who else would want to hear it but her? - his whole identity, his entire reason for being here, on Etheria, still alive and still an individual with a name and wants and needs; it was all because of her.  
Her friendship. Her affection.  
He owed her his everything.  
So he stayed by her side, and let her delegate any work she thought he'd enjoy, or that she didn't want to bother with.  
And when there wasn't any work for him to do, and she was too engrossed to speak, to allow him to serve the purpose of an extra brain, additional processing power - that gave him time to just appreciate her.

He was fascinated with her hair, how it worked in tandem with her hands. It was such a curious thing, so responsive, unlike any other being he'd encountered. He wanted to know how it worked, as an additional appendage; multiple ones, if needed. The flexibility was necessary, he knew - if she didn't have it, he wholly expected she would have developed mechanical arms to keep up with how fast her brain worked.  
And the grease that inevitably ended up on her face, her clothes, the black caking into the creases in her skin over the day. How little she cared about it enchanted him. Hordak had always been prone to keeping up appearances, ensuring he was pristine at all times - could never let himself be seen as any less than perfect, because what, then, would be the impression of the Horde? Scruffiness was imperfection and imperfection was aberration, an insult to Prime.  
But Entrapta? Entrapta didn't care, so long as she was working. It was freeing even being near her as she grew dirtier, and seeing her clean again the next morning, ready to start all over again; pure liberation.

Her determination with experiments, too, her unwillingness to give up, even as projects seemed, to Hordak's eyes, to be fruitless.  
Maybe twice in the whole time they'd known one another had she given up on something, but even then, she didn't walk away entirely; she scrapped her work, but continued trying to solve the problem from a different angle, referring back to what had gone wrong with her initial process all the while until she salvaged something from the wreckage and then polished it to... not quite perfection, because she didn't believe in that. But in Hordak's eyes, it was.

That love of the imperfect, too, it captivated him. The way she adopted things that weren't quite up to others' standards, loved them so much he could see her get frustrated that she couldn't quite express just how deep her adoration ran. Robots, especially; the way she spoke to them like others spoke to precious little creatures, treated them like pets.  
It was... If he called it adorable, then that really was making a point, because he'd never found any use for that word before her.  
And that her affinity for the imperfect extended to include him...

There were other words he knew, but hadn't yet used. He wasn't quite there yet, wasn't ready to let them even cross his mind. But they were there. Waiting for him to be ready.

And until he was ready to say them, the very least he could do was help her.  
He could be a good lab partner. They both knew he was good for that.


End file.
